Commentary on the beginnings of the graphic novel

The readings for this week were excellent examples in panel innovation for the sake of enhancing the themes in the story, rather than just as a tool to keep moving action along at an engaging pace.A Contract with God shows an extreme version of this in which the early panels are expanded to encompass the whole page, which pulls the reader deep into the scene; when we move from the lush environmental illustrations with cloudy edges that encompass the main character’s depressed inner landscape, and towards human interaction, the panels become bounded by edges that place it closer to something concrete and grounded.

I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more comics or graphic novels which use these mostly full-page illustrations with smatterings of text, more similar in form to an illustrated children’s book than a comic but with wildly different content. It’s something I’d like to use in my own work, or at the very least, I’d like to take a closer look at conventions used in primarily children’s media and figure out if they can be applied effectively in other contexts.

Thompson does something similar in smaller doses for Blankets— the most impactful pages, the ones that are meant to suck you in and fully consume you, are the full-page illustrations where the borders fall away. These scenes are similarly ones of thematic inner-world importance, such as the car falling over the edge of the parking lot (my favorite page in the whole book). Eisner’s work is harsher, more depressing, and in that sense explores the darkness in the everyday lives that he’s known; Thompson’s is more sentimental and almost flowery. But despite the differences in approach they both display more complex or sophisticated themes than the strips of old, as well as subtler and more intentional execution that uses the unique language of visual media to elevate these messages.